Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. To fill and mold the cookies, take a piece of dough about the size of a walnut (1 ounce), squeezing and shaping into a rough ball. Coat the interior of a wooden ma’amoul mold with flour, knocking out the excess. Don’t skip this step!
Place the filled and shaped cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake the cookies for 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once during cooking. Remove the cookies when they are lightly golden brown. Let the maamoul cool completely before dusting with powdered sugar.
To shape maamoul by hand: Dust your work surface with flour. Use your hand or a rolling pin dusted with flour to flatten the dough ball to about ¼-inch thick in an oblong shape, about 2 ½-inches long by 1 ½-inches wide. Shape a tablespoon of date paste into a log similar in shape but smaller than the flattened dough.
If you’re looking for seasonal cookies, try our low-carb gingerbread cookies, which are the perfect warm treat during the holidays. You can even use traditional cookie cutters to make the shapes of these more festive. Celebrate fall with our low carb pumpkin spice cookies, which include all the best flavors of pumpkin spice.